Formatting guide: manuscript preparation and submission

Formatting Guide to Authors : For authors and referees : Nature



Formatting guide: manuscript preparation and submission

Information Sheets for Downloading

Manuscript preparation and submission (doc 77KB) (Manuscript_formatting.doc) Section summaries (doc 40KB) (Section_summaries.doc) Brief Communications and Communications Arising (doc 53KB) (Brief_comms.doc) Annotated example: summary paragraph for Letters (doc 40KB) (Letter_bold_para.doc) Annotated example: end notes (doc 225KB) (End_notes.doc) Statistical checklist (doc 44KB) (Statistical_checklist.doc) Characterization of chemical materials (doc 52KB) (chemistry_guidelines.doc)

See the full list of information sheets (/nature/authors/infosheets.html) .

This guide describes how to prepare contributions for submission. A short version is available above (Manuscript preparation and submission). We recommend you read the full version below if you have not previously submitted a contribution to Nature.

We strongly recommend that, before submission, you familiarize yourself with Nature's style and content by reading the journal, either in print or online (/nature/) , particularly if you have not submitted to the journal recently.

Failure to adhere to these guidelines can seriously delay the handling of your contribution.

Table of contents

1. Formats for Nature contributions (#a1) 1.1 Articles (#a1.1) 1.2 Letters (#a1.2) 1.3 Brief Communications, Communications Arising and Corrections (#a1.3) 1.4 Other types of submission (#a1.4)

2. The editorial process (#a2) 3. Presubmission enquiries (#a3) 4. Readability (#a4) 5. Format of Articles and Letters (#a5)

5.1 Titles (#a5.1) 5.2 Text (#a5.2) 5.3 Methods (#a5.3) 5.4 References (#a5.4) 5.5 End notes (#a5.5) 5.6 Statistics (#a5.6) 5.7 Tables (#a5.6) 5.8 Figure legends (#a5.7) 5.9 Figures (#a5.8) 5.10 Production quality figures (#a5.10) 5.11 Supplementary information (#a5.11) 5.12 Characterization of chemical materials (#a5.12) 6. Submission (#a6)

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7. Publishing in other Nature and NPG journals (#a7)

1. Formats for Nature contributions

Nature's main formats for original research are Articles and Letters. The journal also publishes a very few Brief Communications (briefcomms.html) . In addition, Nature also publishes other submitted material as detailed below (Section 1.4). Mission statements and short summaries of the content published in each of these sections is available for downloading (doc 40KB) (Section_summaries.doc) .

1.1 Articles

are original reports whose conclusions represent a substantial advance in understanding of an important problem and have immediate, far-reaching implications. They do not normally exceed 5 pages of Nature and have no more than 50 references. (One page of undiluted text is about 1,300 words.)

Articles have a summary, separate from the main text, of up to 150 words, which does not have references, and does not contain numbers, abbreviations, acronyms or measurements unless essential. It is aimed at readers outside the discipline. This summary contains a paragraph (2-3 sentences) of basic-level introduction to the field; a brief account of the background and rationale of the work; a statement of the main conclusions (introduced by the phrase 'Here we show' or its equivalent); and finally, 2-3 sentences putting the main findings into general context so it is clear how the results described in the paper have moved the field forwards.

Authors are encouraged to include a link to a simple schematic, included as Figure 1 of their Supplementary Information (../submissions/final/suppinfo.html) , that summarises the main finding of the paper, where appropriate (for example to assist understanding of complex details in cell, structural and molecular biology disciplines).

Articles are typically 3,000 words of text, beginning with up to 500 words of referenced text expanding on the background to the work (some overlap with the summary is acceptable), before proceeding to a concise, focused account of the findings, ending with one or two short paragraphs of discussion.

The text may contain a few short subheadings (not more than six in total) of no more than 40 characters each (less than one line of text in length).

Articles typically have 5 or 6 display items (figures or tables).

1.2 Letters

are short reports of original research focused on an outstanding finding whose importance means that it will be of interest to scientists in other fields.

They do not normally exceed 4 pages of Nature, and have no more than 30 references. They begin with a fully referenced paragraph, ideally of about 200 words, but certainly no more than 300 words, aimed at readers in other disciplines. This paragraph starts with a 2-3 sentence basic introduction to the field; followed by a one-sentence statement of the main conclusions starting 'Here we show' or equivalent phrase; and finally, 2-3 sentences putting the main findings into general context so it is clear how the results described in the paper have moved the field forwards.

Please refer to our annotated example (doc 40KB) (Letter_bold_para.doc) to see how the summary paragraph for a Letter should be constructed.

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Authors are encouraged to include a link to a simple schematic, included as Figure 1 of their Supplementary Information (../submissions/final/suppinfo.html) , that summarises the main finding of the paper, where appropriate (for example to assist understanding of complex detail in cell, structural and molecular biology disciplines).

The rest of the text is typically about 1,500 words long. Any discussion at the end of the text should be as succinct as possible, not repeating previous summary/introduction material, to briefly convey the general relevance of the work.

Letters typically have 3 or 4 small display items (figures or tables).

Word counts refer to the text of the paper. References, title, author list and acknowledgements do not have to be included in total word counts.

1.3 Brief Communications, Communications Arising and Corrections

Brief Communications is a peer-reviewed section of Nature which is less formal than Articles and Letters, aimed at the broadest possible readership.

Communications Arising are exceptionally interesting or important comments and clarifications on original research papers or other peer-reviewed material published in Nature, which are published online only.

Corrections to peer-reviewed material published in Nature.

For details of these sections, and instructions for submission please access the Brief Communications pages (briefcomms.html) .

1.4 Other contributions to Nature

Please access the other submitted material pages (others.html) for further details on any of the contribution types below.

Correspondence (others.html#correspondence) Commentary (others.html#commentary) Books and Arts (others.html#book) Essays (others.html#essays) News and Views (others.html#newsandviews) Reviews and Progress (others.html#reviews) Insights (others.html#insights) Analysis, Hypothesis (others.html#occasional) Nature Jobs editorial articles (others.html#jobs) Technology features (others.html#technology)

2. The editorial process

See getting published in Nature (../get_published/) for an explanation of Nature's editorial criteria for publication, refereeing policy and how editors handle papers after submission.

3. Presubmission enquiries

If you wish to enquire whether your Article or Letter might be suitable for consideration by Nature, please use our online presubmission enquiry service. (../submissions/presubs/) All presubmission enquiries must include a a cover paragraph to the editor stating the interest to a

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broad scientific readership, a fully referenced summary paragraph in the style for Letters to Nature, and a reference list. Note that presubmission enquiries are NOT considered for Brief Communications.

4. Readability

Nature is an international journal covering all the sciences. Contributions should therefore be written clearly and simply so that they are accessible to readers in other disciplines and to readers for whom English is not their first language.

Essential but specialized terms should be explained concisely but not didactically.

For gene, protein and other specialized names authors can use their preferred terminology so long as it is in current use by the community, but they must give all known names for the entity at first use in the paper. Authors in doubt about terminology are advised to use internationally agreed nomenclature for genes () and for mouse strains () .

Taxonomy. Authors of papers that contain taxonomy (that is, the formal nomenclature and description of new species) must send a copy of the published paper by mail (not email) as soon as possible after publication, or send otherwise notification of the new name with a full reference and date, to the Executive Secretary, the Linnean Society of London, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BF, UK, as detailed in Nature () .

Nature's editors provide detailed advice about format before contributions are formally accepted for publication. Nature's editors often suggest revised titles and rewrite the summaries of Articles and first paragraphs of Letters so the conclusions are clear to a broad readership.

After acceptance, Nature's subeditors (copyeditors) ensure that the text and figures are readable and clear to those outside the field, and edit papers into Nature's house style. They pay particular attention to summary paragraphs, overall clarity, figures, figure legends and titles.

Proofs are sent before publication; authors are welcome to discuss proposed changes with Nature's subeditors, but Nature reserves the right to make the final decision about matters of style and the size of figures.

A useful set of articles providing general advice about writing and submitting scientific papers can be found in () 's "How do I?" section.

5. Format of Articles and Letters.

Contributions should be double-spaced and written in English (spellings as in the Oxford English Dictionary () )

Contributions should be organized in the sequence: title, text, methods, references, Supplementary Information line (if any), acknowledgements, author contributions (optional), author information (containing data deposition statement, interest declaration and corresponding author line), tables, figure legends.

5.1 Titles

do not exceed two lines in print. This equates to 90 characters (including spaces) for Letters, or 75 characters (including spaces) for Articles. Titles do not normally include numbers, acronyms,

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abbreviations or punctuation. They should include sufficient detail for indexing purposes but be general enough for readers outside the field to appreciate what the paper is about.

5.2 Text

Articles should fill no more than 5 pages, and Letters no more than 4 pages, of Nature. An uninterrupted page of text contains about 1,300 words. A typical Article contains about 3,000 words of text and, additionally, five small display items (figures and/or tables) with brief legends, reference list and methods section if applicable. A typical Letter to Nature contains about 1,500 words of text (excluding the first paragraph of Letters, figure legends, reference list and the methods section if applicable) and four small display items (figures and/or tables) with brief legends (see 5.9 (#a5.9) for instructions on sizing figures).

When submitting new or revised manuscripts, authors should state in a cover letter to the editor their rough estimate of the length of their paper in terms of number of pages of Nature.

Authors of contributions that significantly exceed the limits stated here or specified by the editor will have to shorten their papers before acceptance, inevitably delaying publication.

Nature prefers authors to be listed without details of relative status, but instead to specify the contribution (/nature/journal/v399/n6735/full/399393b0_fs.html) made by their co-authors in the end notes (#a5.5) of the paper. Nature strongly encourages coauthors to specify their contributions in this way.

If authors regard it as essential to indicate that two or more co-authors are equal in status, they may be identified by an asterisk symbol with the caption 'These authors contributed equally to this work' immediately under the address list. If more than three co-authors are equal in status, this should be indicated in the author contributions statement.

Present addresses appear immediately below the author list (below the footnote rule at the bottom of the first page) and may be identified by a dagger symbol; all other essential author-related explanation is in the acknowledgements.

We prefer authors to format Articles or Letters using Nature's Word template (../submissions/template/) .

5.3 Methods.

If brief (less than 200 words in total), they can be included in the text at an appropriate place.

Otherwise, they should be described at the end of the text in a 'Methods' section, subdivided by short, bold headings referring to methods used.

Descriptions of methods already published should be avoided; a reference number can be provided to save space, with the new addition or variation briefly stated.

This whole section should not exceed 800 words and should ideally be shorter. If more space is required for Methods, the author is advised to submit the extra material as online-only Supplementary Information (../submissions/final/suppinfo.html) , which is also peer-reviewed, and which accompanies the published paper on Nature's website.

After receiving referees' reports, editors may suggest that further methodological and similar essential but specialist-interest material is published as SI in the light of pressure on space in the printed issue. Hence authors are advised to make the Methods section of the main paper minimal

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